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The word philanthropy comes from the Greek word philanthrōpia, which is broadly defined as loving people, love of mankind. That’s one definition. I work in organized philanthropy that seeks to eliminate societal problems, to affect the public good or increase the welfare of others which has a multiplier effect of benefiting all.

Philanthropy is different from charity. Charity focuses on eliminating the suffering caused by societal problems. Examples would be providing books for school children and beds for the homeless. It is emotional and feels good and you can often see an immediate impact and that is gratifying.

Philanthropy asks why is there homelessness and why aren’t all children reading on grade level? As a grantmaker, we are trying to promote the wellbeing of humankind by solving societal problems. We are trying to increase wellbeing by addressing the structural issues that create better outcomes.

How did you get into the philanthropy field?

I didn’t have any true career aspirations. God directed my path to philanthropy. My internship in graduate school in 1988 was in the field. When I was at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, I secured a summer internship at the Ford Foundation. It was a great opportunity and I loved it.

That said, even after that experience, I didn’t plan to pursue a career in this field. Philanthropy seemed exclusive. It seemed to me that you weren’t encouraged to join the field unless you had all these credentials.

What drew me to that job and what has drawn me to all the philanthropic work I’ve led since isn’t a passion for giving out money. I’m passionate about community building and advancing equity.

Philanthropy is criticized for not being diverse or inclusive, especially at the board level. Do diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in philanthropy even matter?

It absolutely matters because the goal of philanthropy is to effect change in communities and that can best be achieved when those with lived experiences are represented on staffs and boards.

I want to be clear. This is not an argument for racial essentialism. Obviously, not all people of color are the same. And it’s possible to have a diverse board or staff where people don’t speak up or use their power.

But if you are truly trying to use your philanthropic dollars to create systemic change, then your work must be informed by a diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and identities.

What’s your giving strategy at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation?

We’re launching a new direction for the Foundation as we speak. It’s called AREquity2025 (Arkansas Equity 2025). Our goal is to relentlessly pursue economic, educational, social, and ethnic equity for all Arkansans.

Our board has determined that inequity a root cause of persistent poverty in our state. Put simply, not all Arkansans have access to the opportunities they need to thrive and prosper.

We’re asking this question: What are the systems and structural barriers that prevent us from achieving equity?

For example, in educational equity, we plan to partner with communities where families are striving to succeed and yet, grade level reading scores are at their worst, particularly for boys of color.

Another equity issue that our board wants to address is accessing to living wages.

Far too many Arkansans simply are not making enough money to support their families. And we know anecdotally that Arkansas is marketed to industry as a low-wage state.

We want to catalyze change in this area. When new industries come into our state, we want communities to be empowered with the data to incent and negotiate with those companies to pay a living wage.

Some foundations don’t like to use public policy as a tool for creating systemic change. How do you think about that?

We’ve been funding public policy since our founding. For example, we funded nonprofit advocacy organizations that helped change the rules around payday lending in our state via policy change. WRF is one of the few foundations in Arkansas that has supporting advocacy and organizing as its central strategy. We seek to support organizations that can influence public discourse and policy decisions to advance economic, educational, social, ethnic and racial equity.

What else do you want people to know about the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation?

That our direction is equity. And, for us, change demands courage and commitment. We are a small state with a population of about 2.8 million Arkansans. While it will not be easy, we can address equity in our great state. I have hope we will see and effect equitable change.

Who are your sheroes?

My mother, Sandra Aiken is my shero. I also really admire women like Mary McLeod Bethune and Shirley Chisholm. They are like Nubia, our Black Wonder Woman. They were courageous and brilliant. Bethune and Chisholm were trying to get our country to do better when there was absolutely no love for Black women in the U.S.

My husband and I traveled to Ghana several years ago and visited the castles where the enslaved were held in dark rooms for months before they were shipped off to slavery. I can’t really imagine what it is like to survive amidst that much oppression and suffering. It’s almost as if our ancestors were superhuman to survive the atrocities of being taken from Africa to ports unknown, to enslavement, to freedom, to segregation and discrimination today. They had a trait that is beyond resilience. I truly admire all those who came before me. They are my heroes.

Women start businesses with less capital than men and have less access to capital to expand their enterprises. Financing options, availability of capital, and their associated costs drive firm size, determining a company’s ability to compete, respond to evolving market conditions, and scale operations to realize market opportunities.
In developing countries, an estimated 70% of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in the formal sector are unserved or underserved by financial institutions — a financing gap reaching US$ 287 billion. In East Asia and the Pacific, this financial gap runs to US$ 68 billion.
Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian government, was designed to support the growth of impact investing for women’s SMEs in Southeast Asia. Launched in 2016, the Investing in Women Initiative promotes women’s economic empowerment by redressing socio-cultural barriers to women’s full economic participation, whether in leadership positions, access to capital, labor force participation, or workplace equity.
Within impact investing, the program seeks to expand access to — and control over — economic resources for women entrepreneurs.
Read the source article at ImpactAlpha

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